Italian rock band Maneskin narrowly edged out rivals Saturday night to win the Eurovision Song Contest.
Maneskin’s 524-point victory in the Rotterdam contest with a performance of “Zitti e buoni” earned Italy its first win since 1990 and the country’s third victory overall.
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“We think that the whole event was a relief. We think that we were really thankful … to have had the chance to be part of this huge event,” Maneskin lead singer Damiano David said.
Bassist Victoria De Angelis said the most meaningful aspect of Maneskin’s victory was the support the four-piece band had from the audience.
“The fact that so many people vote for us, it’s the most meaningful because that means that those people are coming to our gigs. They are listening to our music, and this has much more value than a jury,” she said.
Maneskin narrowly beat out Barbara Pravi of France, whose performance of “Voila” earned her 499 points in the final scoring, and Switzerland‘s Gjon’s Tears came in third with 432 points.
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The 2020 Eurovision contest, which was also scheduled to take place in the Netherlands, was canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which hit Italy particularly hard.
More than 4.1 million cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in Italy, and more than 125,000 deaths have been attributed to the disease, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.
